Art Fairs in LA are strange creatures. An enormous amount of time, energy and money goes into putting on the fairs with the hopes that new collectors are born and regular collectors come to shop. What I tend to see at most fairs, are the usual suspects, the same people who one would expect to see at any art event in town and yet the hope has to be for an expanded audience. Adam Gross, the executive director spoke about how great the LA art scene and how the fair was a chance to express the creativity that is happening in more than just Hollywood, to the general public. Ah, now that’s the catch. How to get the general public to drive out to Santa Monica for an art fair? (Much less that this is Carmageddon Part II weekend). Well, I suppose that remains to be seen, I’ll be interested in seeing the attendance numbers. But I had great appreciation for the enthusiasm and optimism that Gross expressed and I hope he’s right, that the art audience expands.

There is no such thing as a perfect fair. It’s easy enough to read about the many hits and misses at all of the big fairs, it’s what you have come to expect. I thought the fair was very good, with a great sampling of local galleries like Angles, Carmichael, gallery KM, Maloney, Marine Contemporary, Frank Lloyd, Richard Heller and Marc Selwyn.

Three standouts: David Lloyd’s tornado sculpture in the lobby coupled with Jacques Perconte and Sean Capone video installations. Kudos to Paul Young from Young Projects who spent three days nonstop on his galleries’ video installation. The two artist above did work that was some of the best in the show. These moving temporal paintings take visual imagery to a relevant contemporary view that is often sorely missing in traditional static genres.

My take? Go! See this fair with it’s intense collision of varied artworks from around the globe.